IOUA

About

IOUA is a single player open world simulation game with horror and drama themes. It was developed by JACK! and was released on February 7, 2023. It received neutral reviews from players.

An endless torture game set in the distorted remnants of forgotten RPGMaker puzzles.

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50%

Audience ScoreBased on 12 reviews

graphics2 positive mentions

story3 negative mentions

The game presents an interesting and experimental concept that riffs on the style of abandoned RPG Maker stories.
Visuals and music effectively create a haunting and unsettling atmosphere that escalates with each room.
Developer showed some promise and effort by creating a guide and teasing additional content, indicating potential future improvements.

Puzzles are overly obscure, confusing, and lack sufficient guidance or clues, making progression nearly impossible without external help.
The game suffers from low quality typical of RPG Maker asset flips, including poor graphics, awkward gameplay, and uncomfortable writing.
Developer support is lacking or inconsistent, with removed guides and poor communication, leading to player frustration.

story
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
100%
The story is criticized for its immature, self-referential, and cliché writing, resembling a disjointed RPG Maker fan-fiction. However, it shows some experimental elements and a potential for improvement with a teased second chapter.
- “ioua: the forest is an experimental puzzle game in the style of an abandoned RPG Maker story.”
- “Instead, we have an "I'm thirteen and meta is clever" plot around this RPG Maker asset flip being the product of a bunch of other RPG Maker asset flips, and you have to do 2D adventuring and solve puzzles while reading, yes, you guessed it, the high school anime club dropout fan-fiction cringefest of writing that makes up this RPG Maker asset puke.”
- “"IOUA: The Forest" is an experimental puzzle game in the style of an abandoned RPG Maker story.”
- “Furthermore, a second chapter to the story is being teased and the game will hopefully see some improvement in its new content.”
graphics
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The graphics suffer from limitations of the RPG Maker engine, lacking Full HD support and proper fullscreen display, which may disappoint modern PC gamers. However, the visuals effectively complement the game's unsettling atmosphere and concept, enhancing the overall aesthetic experience.
- “The unfortunate part about this is that IOUA is not only an interesting concept, but a fairly well executed one on an aesthetic level.”
- “The visuals perfectly execute its premise, the music is droning and haunting, and each room gets more unsettling than the last with escalating horrors.”
- “As with all RPG Maker games, the poor quality engine displays badly in fullscreen and doesn't have full HD support or any graphics tweaking options, making this unacceptable for any dedicated modern PC gamer.”
gameplay
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The gameplay primarily involves navigating from room to room while solving increasingly obscure and challenging puzzles, though it is criticized for low-quality design and lackluster execution common in many RPG Maker titles.
- “Like most RPG Maker shovelware and asset flips, the game features extremely low quality, copy-pasted 2D retro pixel art, looks awful, and has even worse gameplay.”
- “The gameplay mostly consists of traveling from room to room, with each puzzle increasing in obscurity and difficulty.”
music
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music is described as droning and haunting, effectively enhancing the unsettling atmosphere and escalating tension throughout the game.
- “The visuals perfectly execute its premise, the music is droning and haunting, and each room gets more unsettling than the last with escalating horrors.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's replayability shows promise but is currently limited due to playability issues; improvements could significantly enhance its long-term appeal.